After a litany of sexual abuse allegations against a former teacher at Shattuck-St. Mary's School, police in Faribault, Minn., say an earlier case involving another teacher is evidence the school has a habit of not disclosing such allegations when they should.

Interim Faribault Police Chief Don Gudmundson noted Tuesday that in 2008, Leonard Jones -- a "dorm parent" and former director of residential life at the private preparatory school -- fatally shot himself after being confronted by school officials about a three-year sexual relationship he'd allegedly had with a foreign exchange student since she was 15.

In a written statement Tuesday, Shattuck-St. Mary's officials said they were in the process of removing Jones from the school "so that an investigation could be conducted and appropriate notifications made" when the 34-year-old history teacher killed himself that same day.

But Gudmundson said that upon learning of the allegations, the school should have first contacted police.

"They were apparently doing their own investigation, and they did not notify the professionals," he said. "And I would make the case that as a result, (Jones) was able to say he was going to get his coat and (then) get a shotgun and kill himself.

"And using history as a guide, I don't think they would have reported that unless they had a dead body," Gudmundson added.

Advertisement

School officials added in their statement that they immediately disclosed the allegations to police at the scene of the suicide and conducted two webcast meetings with the school's students and their parents, "in which the allegations were disclosed and discussed openly."

Shattuck-St. Mary's spokeswoman Amy Wolf said the school would not comment beyond the statement.

Also Tuesday, a St. Paul law firm said it is investigating the possibility that a third Shattuck-St. Mary's teacher might have been engaged in sexual misconduct in the 1980s.

Gregg Meyers, an attorney with Jeff Anderson & Associates, said the firm has been approached by three men who say they were sexually assaulted at Shattuck-St. Mary's. Two are involved in the recent allegations and a third said he was molested by another teacher in the mid-1980s.

Meyers said the firm has identified a St. Paul man whose name and approximate age match the teacher, but have yet to confirm he's the same person.

When asked about a possible case involving a third teacher, Gudmundson said, "We are still investigating and have interviewed more victims."

On Monday, prosecutors in Rice County charged former Shattuck-St. Mary's drama instructor Lynn Seibel with 17 counts of felony criminal sexual conduct pertaining to the alleged abuse of six male students from 1999 to 2003.

According to a criminal complaint, Seibel, 70, would hold private sessions with the students in which he encouraged them to masturbate; at times he also touched them.

Seibel taught at Shattuck-St. Mary's from 1993 until he resigned in 2003, after school officials confronted him about 14,000 pornographic pictures on his work computer. He is jailed in Los Angeles on unrelated child porn charges.

Shattuck-St. Mary's never contacted police about the computer, and investigators reviewing a report about the images said they "were without question illegal child pornography."

Additionally, another student made allegations against Seibel in 2001, and school officials conducted their own investigation before concluding the allegations were unfounded. Shattuck-St. Mary's officials said they notified police of the allegations, but authorities said they had no evidence of such disclosures.

Gudmundson said the school gave his department some documents with redacted notes that were of no use.

"There's no investigative complaint, no record they called here. No record they called social services," said Gudmundson, who was Dakota County sheriff at the time. "Apparently they said there was a voice mail, but nothing our detective can remember, nothing that set off any alarms. And he would have been hyper-alert for that sort of thing."

Minnesota's mandatory reporting statute requires educational professionals to tell a "local welfare agency ... police department, or the county sheriff" if they have reason to believe a child is being sexually abused, or be held criminally liable if they do not.

Asked whether there might be criminal charges against school officials, Gudmundson said, "That's something the county attorney needs to look into."